One night last December, a 40-year-old border patrol agent named Brian Allen Terry was shot dead when he faced down a group of bandits in a small Arizona town, just north of the Mexico border.
At his funeral 10 days later, a reporter asked his older brother how he felt, knowing Mr. Terry was killed by the bullet of an AK-47, a far more powerful weapon than the agent himself was armed with at the time.
"Where did they get the fire power?" Kent Terry Sr. retorted. "Stop it right there. Start going after them kind of guys," he said.
What Mr. Terry's family didn't know was that the rifle that killed his brother was likely sold to Mexican criminals under the auspices of a controversial, covert operation of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In other words, the men who killed Mr. Terry got their guns with the help of the U.S. government itself.
The secret program, dubbed "Operation Fast and Furious" is now the subject of heated debate in Congress, with Republican legislators this week tabling a report sharply critical of the U.S. Justice Department for allowing nearly 1,000 guns to flow illegally into Mexico.
It is one of several recent incidents that has prompted renewed scrutiny of America's so-called war on drugs. But while Washington has typically blamed Mexican authorities for corruption and ineptitude in cracking down on the cartels, now it's the Obama administration that finds its failings in the spotlight.
There is mounting criticism from unlikely corners that the United States, through its policies, is aggravating old problems, and in some cases, creating new ones.
Last week, for instance, a Senate subcommittee heard that Mexican drug cartels are luring U.S. border agents into smuggling operations with promises of cash and sex.
These incidents have increased in recent years not only because the border force has essentially doubled in size since 2004, but because the screening process for these new hires has proven sketchy.
Only one in 10 underwent a polygraph test and of those tested 60 per cent were found unfit to hire. Those numbers have led some officials to the startling conclusion that many of these new recruits enlisted "with corruption already in mind," as Alan Bersin, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said.
Even more bungling is evident with "Fast and Furious," which was launched in 2009 to allow U.S. officials to track weapons sold in the United States to straw buyers - people who pretend to be a legitimate buyers, but in reality are colluding with Mexican drug cartels.
Rather than arresting the straw buyer, the authorities allow the sale to proceed then track the weapons into Mexico, hoping it will lead them to net a bigger fish inside the Mexican drug cartels themselves.
Instead, critics say, the guns were lost and none of the roughly two dozen people who were ultimately arrested were members of the cartels. They were just straw buyers.
The congressional report quotes a number of anonymous agents who expressed doubts about the program.
"I mean, first or second day, you are starting to question why we aren't doing this," one agent was quoted as saying, explaining his feelings when his superiors ordered him not to stop the purchase of dozens of weapons by a straw buyer.
"By the end of the week, it was frustration already as to how many guns we have watched these guys get away with," the agent said.
On Wednesday, congressional lawmakers concluded that "Fast and Furious" never led to the arrest of any major traffickers and the guns were used in a number of killings in Mexico.
Lawmakers on the House of Representatives oversight committee are demanding answers from the Obama administration about why no arrests were made while investigators were tracking the firearms.
While analysts hope the current debate will pave the way for more coherent policies around border relations and the drug wars, they also doubt it.
Carlo Dade, executive director of FOCAL, an independent think-tank in Ottawa, said: "All of this has undermined the credibility of the U.S. response in trying to work with the Mexicans. You've got the Congress that's schizophrenic about this. One minute, all hell's about to break loose. Five minutes later, they don't want to be bothered about it."
"The underlying dynamics still haven't changed. We're still missing the key ingredients: A serious commitment from Congress on a long-term plan and serious engagement by the Mexicans," he said.